Internet Explorer Tips and Tricks
Steve Garwood

Printable Page:

Using a URL/Web Address:

  1. Click in the location bar above to the right of the present address. This will either highlight all the  text or insert the cursor into the text. (Alternatively you can press the Tab key)
  2. Delete all the text using the Backspace (moves left) or Delete (moves right) key.
  3. Type in the URL/Address that you want to go to. (we'll use http://www.yahoo.com)
  4. Check the URL/Address to make sure you didn't make any mistakes.
  5. Press the Enter key on the keyboard to go to the site.
  6. Click on the Back button on the toolbar to go back to the Class page.

  Note: You can also CTRL+O to open up a window where you can type a URL
Home Location: (2 ways to change where the Home button takes you)

First:

  1. Click on Tools on the Toolbar
  2. Click on Internet Options
  3. Close to the top you will see "Home page"
  4. Click in the box/field with the present address to either highlight all the text or
    insert the cursor into the text
  5. Delete all text
  6. Type in the URL that you want to use as your "Home" location. (we'll use http://www.excite.com)
  7. Click ok
  8. You will now go to the Excite Search Engine when you click on Home. (try it)
  9. Now click on the Back button until you are on the Library Homepage

Second:

  1. With the browser on the Library Homepage...
  2. Click on Tools on the Toolbar
  3. Click on Internet Options
  4. Close to the top you will see "Home page"
  5. Click on the button that says Use Current in that section
  6. The address in the Home location box in the current window will change to the URL of the Library Homepage.
  7. Click ok
  8. You will now go to the Library Homepage when you click on Home (try it)

This is what the Internet Options box looks like when changing the Home location:
Favorites: (Adding, Deleting, and Changing)
  1. Making a Favorite: (Multiple ways)
    First Way
    - When on a page you want to Favorite, Click on the Favorite button 
    on the toolbar
    - Click on Add...
    - An "Add Favorite" window will appear where you can name the Favorite, pick which folder you want to put it in, or create a new folder
    - You should now see Favorite Me in the Name box and the folder Favorites selected
    - Click on OK to make this Favorite (Your favorite will be at the bottom of the list)
    -  Click on the X in the Favorites sidebar to close the Favorites area

    Second Way
    - When on a page you want to Favorite, single click with the right side mouse button on the page
    - Click on Add to Favorites.
    - The Add Favorites window will appear...proceed as above

    Third Way
    - Just use CTRL+D and that will automatically make the Favorite
  2. Deleting a Favorite: (Multiple Ways)
    First Way
    - Click on Favorite button on toolbar
    - Locate the Favorite that you want to delete
    - Click with the Right side mouse button and choose delete
    - Let's try it with one of the "Favorite Me" entries

    Second Way
    - Click on Favorite button on toolbar
    - Click on Organize
    - Locate the Favorite that you want to delete
    - Click on it once with the left side mouse button, then click on the Delete button on the Window or push the Delete key
    - Let's try it with another of the "Favorite Me" entries

  3. Changing a Favorite's name:
    - Click on Favorite button on toolbar
    - Click on Organize
    - Locate the Favorite that you want to rename
    - Click on it once with the left side mouse button, then click on the Rename button on the Window
    - Let's try it with the last of the "Favorite Me" entries (Change it to your name, then delete it when done)

 

Find on Page: (text string search on a page)
  1. Click onto the "white space" of the page to make the page "active" - this tells the browser that this is the Page that you want to work with..
  2. Click on the word Edit on the toolbar and then click on Find (on this Page). (or Press and hold the Ctrl key and then press f)
  3. A dialogue box will appear prompting you to enter the text you are looking for.
  4. Enter the text, in this case the word welcome, (or just the first few letters as it automatically works with truncation) and click on Find (or hit the enter button)
Security: (Remember, you cannot control whether security is on)
  1. Purpose: to see whether or not a page is encrypted (i.e. secure) in order to do credit card transactions, etc...
  2. Note: Encryption just means that the number you enter is coded when traveling through the network, and that only the person who is suppose to receive it will have the key to unlock the code.
  3. Look at the lower right hand corner of the screen, you should see something that looks like Image A below.
  4. You'll see there is NO padlock showing you the site is not secure (personally, I'm not going to put my credit card information in on a non-secure page)
  5. The page we are on now doesn't need security, therefore the padlock won't lock.
  6. Remember you CANNOT turn security on, that is up to the people asking for your credit card #.
  7. Follow this link to see what a "locked padlock" looks like. (The link takes you to the Amazon.com shopping cart page and you'll see something like Image B below).

Image A: 

Image B: 

Print Preview: (Before you print...see what is going to come out)
  Only IE Version 5.5 or higher
  1. One thing to always consider on the Web is that what you see is not always what you get...
  2. Therefore, to print only the pages you want, or to at least see how many pages there are, it is best to use Print Preview
  3. First, click on File and then Click on Print Preview
  4. The Print Preview window will open showing the page as it will look when printed, additionally, it will show on the top of the screen how many pages there are (i.e. 1 of 5)
  5. You can then determine which page(s) to print, click on the Print button in Print Preview mode and enter the proper range.
  6. Try it with this page.

Frames:  

  1. Printing the desired Frame:

    2. - Clicking on the white area on this side of the gray bar, clicking makes this frame "active" - in other words, it tells the browser that this is the Frame that you want to work with.
    - Click on File on the toolbar and then click on Print
    - About 3/4 of the way down the new window that appears you'll see Print Frames...choose the option you'd like and then click print

  2. Exploding a Link/Opening a Link in a new window:

    3. - Right click on the link to the left
    - Choose Open in New Window from the menu that appears to tell Internet Explorer to open the page as it's own window.
    - After you explode a page from it's frame, you can see it's address and work with Print Preview.
    - Note: this will not always work, some pages are designed to stay in their Frameset and will constantly reload in frames.

Background color/Text color: (Setting background and Text color for printing)
  1. Click on Tools and then click on Internet Options...
  2. Click on Advanced and then scroll down till you see Printing
  3. Check "Print Background colors and Images"
  4. The document will print with it's background colors allowing you to see light text.
  5. Let's try it with this page. (Don't forget to change it back)
  6. If this still doesn't work...you can do what's coming up next...

This is what the Options box looks like when setting colors:
Copying text from the web (Taking text to use in another application)
  1. If you'd like to copy text from a web page to a document (e.g. Word/Works/etc.)
  2. Click and drag over the text you want. Basically, click and hold down on the left mouse button at the top left corner of the text you want to select and drag to the right and/or down until all the text you want is "highlighted" in black.  (i.e. like this)
  3. Once the text is highlighted, click on Edit and then on Copy on the toolbar
  4. For this demo - we'll minimize Netscape by clicking on the _  symbol on the upper right of the screen and then double click on the Microsoft Word icon to open that program.
  5. When Microsoft Word opens, it will automatically open a new document, to paste the text you just copied - click on Edit and then on Paste and the text you copied will appear.
  6. Note: You might have to reformat the text a bit, the computer isn't always good enough to bring the formatting along with the text. 
  7. Additionally, for a "quick" way to do this CTRL+C is the keyboard command for copy and CTRL+V is the command for paste

  Let's try it with the text below:

   INFOLINK is one of four regional cooperatives of the New Jersey Library Network. The 315 voting members include 928 public and private school, public, academic, institutional, corporate, health sciences and special libraries and library-related agencies. The region includes the three largest municipal public libraries in the state as well as many universities and colleges. Most libraries are organized by municipality and governed by individual boards. A member-elected Executive Board, which meets monthly to oversee the programs and services of the cooperative.
Save images from the Web: (If you see an image on the WWW you can have it)
  1. We'll now save one of the three pictures of my dog to the A:\ drive
  2. First make sure the floppy disk is inserted into the drive
  3. Right click on one of the pictures below
  4. Choose Save Picture As... from the menu that pops up
  5. Change the Save In: to 3 1/2 Floppy A:\ 
  6. Click on the Save Button (later in the class, we'll be looking at the contents of the A:\ drive to make sure it's there)
  7. You can do this with just about any picture that is on the Web
  8. Pick one more picture from below and start again from Step #4

Cody:
King of Cute Gimme a Dog Treat Walkies?

 

Changing Font Size: (Make a page more readable)
  1. When you want/need to change the size of the text on the screen you can
  2. Just click on View move down to Text Size and from the list that appears choose what font size you'd like the text to be.
  3. Try it with this page and see what happens to the text below.

8 Point

10 Point

12 Point

14 Point

18 Point

Location Bar Shortcuts: (Only works in version 4.06 or higher)

Do a Search

  • The "search" trick is a nice little timesaver for doing a web search
  • All you need to do is type the word(s) on which you want to do a web search in the address bar
  • Press the enter key and the search will be done using the MSN Search Engine
  • Let's try it with dog breeds.  Type dog breeds
  • Try it with beanie babies. Type beanie babies
  • Try it with a few of your choice.

Deleting "Auto Complete" entries (aka - eliminating items from that drop down menu)

  • On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options.
  • Click the General tab.
  • Under History, click Clear History.
Keyboard Shortcuts:

Try them, no better way to impress than with a quick keyboard shortcut :-)

To make these work, push and hold down the first key and press the other key while holding down the first.

CTRL+A = Select All

CTRL+C = Copy (Once you've selected text on a page)

CTRL+V = Paste (After you've copied something)

CTRL+Z = Undo

CTRL+P = Print

CTRL+O = Open a Page (on your hard drive) or Location (URL)

CTRL+D = Add page to Favorites

CTRL+B = Work with Favorites

CTRL+R = Refresh (F5 also)

CTRL+F = Find on Page

CTRL+H = History

CTRL+E = Search (in Explorer Bar)

CTRL+I = Favorites (in Explorer Bar)

CTRL+W = Closes the Window

ALT+D = Select Text in Address Bar

ALT+ <--  = Clicking on the Back button

ALT+ --> = Clicking on the Forward butto

Alt+F4 = Closes the Window (Will also prompt for Shutdown/Restart)

F10 - Puts you on the Menu Bar (Using the arrow keys and Enter you can make selections)

F11 - Full Screen Toggle

Use the Tab key with Enter to go to and follow links. (Use Shift+Tab to go backwards)

WinKey - Access Windows Start Menu

WinKey+M - Minimize all Windows OR WinKey+D - Display the Desktop

Arrow Key while holding Shift - Select Text

Double Click - Select Word

Triple Click - Select Line

Click-Shift-Click - Select Text

Spacebar - Scrolldown

Are there any tips and tricks that you would like to share?

Any questions in general regarding Internet Explorer, the Web or Internet, etc.?

If we have time left over you might want to check out these helpful sites:

http://www.worldstart.com/tips

http://www.smartcomputing.com